Any tips on dealing with the physical symptoms of anxiety?

[superchick22684]

I'm looking for some ideas on how you guys deal with some of the physical symptoms of anxiety. I already go to therapy, take meds, do yoga and use guided imagery and progressive muscle relaxation to deal with my anxiety but find that sometimes some of my methods on coping with the physical symptoms of anxiety are not effective all the time.
For example this morning I had to go outside of the office for my job and experienced terrible anxiety and felt like I was going to be sick for about 2 hours. I was surrounded by people so I couldn't really use any of my coping skills to deal with it. I basically sat there and felt miserable until I could get back to the office to make myself some peppermint tea which has helped my anxiety level drop significantly. (Note: I do have agoraphobia.)
Looking for any advice you guys might have to help me deal with the anxiety that I've been experiencing. I suppose I could have posted this on the social anxiety board but this one seems to get more traffic. Thanks in advance!

[Im-Suffering]

The key (the magical answer), literally, for you, is within your own statement (the magic is in you) :




I was surrounded by people so I couldn't really use any of my coping skills to deal with it. I basically sat there and felt miserable.

There are many questions here -

"Why do (I let) people inhibit my progress"
"Why cant I show my ('true') self"
"Why cant I advocate for myself"
"Why do I need to repress my feelings"
"Why do I feel like an outcast (with a 'dirty' little secret')"
"Why do I hide"
"Why is it ok for me to feel miserable" (at all - ever)

Just to begin with, for example. Each question would lead to sub-questions and deeper into the problems that mask or barricade the fortress of the core-anxiety.

Meditate on that. Rather than the inevitable obvious answers you will get here. I am leading you away from the obvious, to avoid the consistent trap. (the inability to see clearly the intent of the anxiety, personally as it applies to your life). The anxiety itself does have intent, meaning, and a purpose. (by magnifying the desire in you for the opposite, the experience of happiness, creativity, and full expression). Encouraging you to clear the path toward living its opposite, you see. Anxiety is not just a 'thing' to be despised at what it is doing 'to you', but as a tool selected so that you could know true fulfillment, in this body, in this life.

What is the purpose of the anxiety? To give birth to desires that would otherwise remain latent for this lifetime. Often the energy is used from a situation or illness to propel the individual into areas he/she thought not possible by any other means. And so if you flip the coin of anxiety, on the other side of your thinking, lies probable avenues of expression that would enrich your life if you chose to explore them. Who am I? What does this teach me? What good can come of this?

For example if a man should lose his leg, would he brood for years and deny any new opportunities for growth (new avenues of expression)? Or will he build new desires within himself to use his arms in ways he never thought possible? Enriching his experience even more vibrantly than before. So the question begs to ask, "What doors does anxiety open?". You are not to focus on its limitations, you see.

"Why do I always focus on my limitations, or thought that is not constructive. Why cant I always think, act, be, in my highest regard for self?". You must ask yourselves that ultimate question, and face the answer.

Now, you may be thinking, "what does any of this have to do with my post?", "I just wanted someone to suggest a youtube video, or maybe to do jumping jacks next time to cope". But what you are really saying, behind the words, is "I don't want to feel this way anymore, todays experience did not make me feel good about me, and I feel badly that I have this intrusion in my life, I just want to live fully (joyfully) the days I have been given" That must come from within.

Success always reaches a plateau at measures taken outside of yourself, say through therapy, or medicines (or whatever rituals), with intuition gently guiding you back to where you would gain the most benefit. (knowing yourself).

[Kuma]

I don't have any "magical answers" -- I wish I did -- but you might want to talk with your doctor about trying a beta blocker. Some people find they help with physical symptoms of anxiety.

[Xerosnake90]

Oh the American way. Have an issue? Here, put these chemicals in your body that'll help!

No, it won't. Read what I'm suffering said and learn to overcome your thoughts. The cause of anxiety. Medication does nothing but repress the things that bother you.

[Kuma]

Oh the American way. Have an issue? Here, put these chemicals in your body that'll help!

No, it won't. Read what I'm suffering said and learn to overcome your thoughts. The cause of anxiety. Medication does nothing but repress the things that bother you.


First of all, the use of medication to address the physical (and emotional) effects of anxiety is not "the American way." Indeed, the particular medication that I suggested the OP might want to discuss with his/her doctor -- a beta blocker -- appears to be more commonly used for this purpose in the UK than in the US. And, more generally, physicians and patients in many countries recognize the utility of medications in helping, along with therapy, to address anxiety and depression.

The notion that medication "does nothing but repress the things that bother you" is ridiculous. Medication, when properly prescribed and taken, can enable certain people to function day to day, who would not otherwise be able to do so. And it enables some people to minimize the acute symptoms of anxiety so that they can focus on getting better through therapy.

It is great for you to say "learn to overcome your thoughts." But that process is not easy, and it is rarely fast. And some people will never be able to achieve it -- not for lack of trying. Medication has a role in making life more tolerable while people try to "learn to overcome their thoughts" -- and for those who are unable to overcome their thoughts.